This week, we have some positive developments to report on the water crisis in Guadalajara, while electrical outages across the Guadalajara Metro Area (GMA) are becoming more serious.
Sheinbaum discussed Guadalajara’s water crisis with Lemus on a recent visit to Jalisco
On Aug. 26, the governor of Jalisco, Pablo Lemus, met with President Claudia Sheinbaum on her visit to Zapopan, where she voiced her support for badly needed hydraulic infrastructure projects to solve the GMA’s water crisis. Sheinbaum was visiting Jalisco to speak at a graduation ceremony and welcome new officers at the Air Force College in Zapopan.
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It was reported that more than 22 billion pesos will be allocated through a combination of federal and state investment, along with additional funds from private sources. Following the meeting, Lemus thanked President Sheinbaum for supporting “the major infrastructure projects that Jalisco needs, especially those that will help us resolve water issues in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area.”
Governor Lemus further clarified that the federal government plans to invest roughly 5 billion pesos to overhaul the El Zapotillo system to optimize water flow and enable it to operate at a maximum capacity of up to 3,000 liters per second. At the state level, the Jalisco government will invest 7.5 billion pesos in the modernization of the Miravalle Water Treatment Plant No. 1 and construct a Chapala-Guadalajara replacement aqueduct for an estimated cost of 10 billion pesos, leveraging a public-private partnership scheme called CMRO.
Billions in pesos pledged for infrastructure to ease long-standing shortages
For impatient residents anxious to know when the water coming from their taps will improve, Lemus said that gradual improvements will start to become noticeable by this October, with additional gains by the first quarter of 2027.
Guadalajara residents turn to citizen science as water crisis deepens
Last June, in response to mounting public pressure, state leaders announced a plan with more than 30 separate measures aimed at addressing the city’s water crisis. At the time, state leaders said a definitive solution to the current water challenges would require an infrastructure investment of more than 20 billion pesos and a multiyear time horizon.
Some of these projects have yet to be approved by Jalisco’s state congress. Despite continuing questions as to where the funds will come from, Lemus continues to insist that the state will not take on debt, the municipal water system will not be privatized, and water rates will not be increased.
Building a better relationship
Before last week’s meeting, Lemus and Sheinbaum (who do not share the same political party) spent months trading verbal jabs over who was responsible for the city’s water mess. At one point, Lemus claimed the state wasn’t a high priority in Sheinbaum’s federal budget, noting at the time it had received “Zero pesos, zero cents from the federal government … for any infrastructure project in Jalisco. Not for highways, not for water infrastructure, not for anything.”
In response, Sheinbaum defended federal efforts to clean up the Lerma and Santiago rivers to reduce health impacts to those in the GMA who live nearby. She also urged Lemus to take ownership of the problem.
Fortunately for the residents of Guadalajara, their recent in-person meeting appears to have put the relationship on better footing, which will be essential to solving the city’s water woes.
Multiple GMA neighborhoods suffer power outages of up to 20 hours a day
While most of Guadalajara’s news headlines continue to focus on the city’s serious water problems, electricity has quietly crept up the list of concerns residents have about municipal infrastructure.
Long a favorite neighborhood of foreign residents, Providencia is now suffering from many of the same infrastructure issues that have historically plagued less desirable areas. Providencia encompasses Providencia Norte, Providencia Sur and Colomos Providencia. Residents in these areas report that dozens of blocks have been without power for multiple hours a day nearly every day, on top of the previously reported water issues.
The residents’ association president, Piero Vega, stated that when the power goes out, homes can be without electricity for up to 20 hours, causing damage to appliances and spoiling food, which is taking a toll on residents’ quality of life. In a recent interview with Mural newspaper, Vega noted the hardship these outages have put on the neighborhood’s elderly residents:
“Many of them have oxygen concentrators; many have diabetes medications. We have a serious problem with the products or things stored in refrigerators, and several people have already been affected by power surges and dips in their electronic devices.”
Grid strain and aging infrastructure fuel safety concerns
Electrical outages have also heightened feelings of insecurity in the neighborhood, as robberies and assaults across the city have been on the rise in 2026, even as the homicide rate declines.
“(The residents) are already afraid of everything when there is power; now it’s even worse without it, because when the houses lose power, the streets also go dark, and thieves … take whatever they can,” Vega observed.
A similar pattern has been unfolding in recent weeks to the north of Providencia, in north Zapopan. In Ecología Seattle and Colonia Los Maestros, multiple power outages lasting 15-plus hours at a time have left residents frazzled.
For its part, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has claimed the recent spate of outages is due to seasonal heavy rains and strong winds. While the storms have certainly done damage, many residents in the affected neighborhoods suspect other factors are in play, namely an overloading of the grid by new businesses, restaurants and power towers, along with inadequate maintenance on transformers and old equipment.
As a resident of this area myself, it is common to hear transformers blow out immediately preceding a power outage, whether there is a storm or not.
MND writer Dawn Stoner is reporting from Guadalajara.
